1830s Sleeve Support Puffs

 Ah, yes, the 'how' part of getting those gigantic 1830s sleeves.  I opted for a canned version instead of stuffing with wool roving.  I figured this way would be cooler.  All that was needed was some white cotton and some cane.  The sleeve plumpers are based off originals such as these:

National Museums of Scotland, 1830s

Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1828

Mine are more closely copied from the first originals.

It does seem (and so it bears mentioning) that the stuffed version of sleeve supports was much more popular in the period than boned versions.  I suppose because they are easier to figure out-they are just giant pillows!  But I hadn't seen anyone make a boned version and wanted to see how it would work out.  Plus, these are a whole lot lighter than wool stuffed pillows on my arms!

The Workwoman's Guide does not have directions for sleeve supports but on page 89, there are engravings and directions for several short sleeves which the author states could also be used as petticoat sleeves.  Now I'm sure she's meaning sleeves for a petticoat body, or a full dress petticoat, but the pattern looked about right to mimic the sleeve puffs from Scotland, so I used that pattern.

The Scottish puffs have the most wonderful zoom feature where you can see each and every stitch that went into them.  That was how I determined that there were canes both horizontal and vertical in the puffs.  They are of course hand stitched and are cut on the bias, just as the WWG describes.  I couldn't tell if the sleeves had a lining which formed the cane casings or if they made bias little channels.  I opted for channels as that seemed easier to me.

I used a total of five channels per puff-two vertical and three horizontal just like the originals.  I used lengths of rattan cane for the 'boning' bits as I had a TON left over from a failed parasol project (well, not really failed-I just had to buy wider cane.  So now I have lots of this thinner stuff.  I am currently taking project requests that use a LOT of cane). They were then gathered into a band both at the top and bottom and the top had little cotton ties added on.  The middle cane I cut 36" long, the top 30", and the bottom 20".

Enjoy!